The ProposedJURY SYSTEMS LAWFor the Filipino People

WHY DO WE NEED TO ADOPTTHE JURY SYSTEMS IN THE PHILIPPINES?
By: Marlowe Camello, Esq., 5/21/2011

There are three important reasons for adopting the Jury Systems. They are, namely: To implement the constitution, to vitalize the power of the Justice System, and to serve as a device for crime prevention to achieve national unity.

Right in the opening provision of the constitution, it has spelled out clearly the type of government ideology we shall embrace and the pecking order of powers of the Filipino people. It states in Article II, Section 1, that “The Philippines is a democratic and republican state. Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them.” This constitutional provision needs implementation with an enabling law, the Jury Systems Law, to recognize and allow free and unrestricted exercise by the people of their supreme authority and power over their government and public servants.

As a source of all government authority, you can further change, modify, add or diminish the power and authority of every public official by exercising your sovereign authority such as by enacting a Jury Systems Law either directly by you through public initiative process pursuant to Republic Act 6735 if Congress does not create it for you.

As a human being, you possess certain rights, rights you can never entrust to someone else, called UNALIENABLE rights which only you alone can jealously protect. These rights have been guaranteed in our constitution by creating a democratic form of government. They are your rights to LIFE, LIBERTY, the RIGHT OF ABODE and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. As you can see, it is self-evident that they are UNALIENABLE, meaning you cannot entrust or transfer them for safekeeping by others much less to politicians and public officials in order for you to enjoy life. Adopting the Jury Systems in our justice system is the only guaranty to protect you of said rights through yourself and by yourself along with the help of your fellow citizens in the private sector. Without juries, there is no way you can protect them adequately.

Some specific examples of your unalienable right are your right where to reside, usually in your own home and land, to breath air, to eat, to think and speak as a human being, to work and to procreate, so that you can keep and fully enjoy your life. Your right, as a social being, to mingle with your friends and fellow citizens in your community is also your unalienable right.

In 1988, Republic Act 6657, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, was enacted, to provide farm workers ownership of economic-size farms. Until today, many farm workers are still struggling to perfect their ownership over their lands under said law. An example of this is the Hacienda Luisita
land distribution that instead created a big trouble for farm and sugar plantation workers resulting, among others, in the massacre of 7 people that included 2 children.

These were all due to the manipulative acts of its landlords in depriving the farm workers in perfecting their ownership of their share in the hacienda. There were even more killings after this incident while no one has been held responsible for the murder of the victims - “thanks” but no thanks, “courtesy” of the corruptible Philippine Justice System. The only hope to solve these murders is by the adoption of the Grand Jury and Trial Jury Systems.

All throughout these many past years and until today, public officials of the government have been misleading the common ordinary people to believe that they, and not the people, are the sovereign masters of Philippine Society, which they were, and are, not in spite of the clear implication of the rights of the people under the constitution.

In practice, public officials and politicians neither believe in the sovereignty of the people. It is only during election time wherein they buy your votes to keep themselves in power. They never recognize your unalienable rights.

As our best strategy in the private sector therefore, we must initiate to adopt our jury systems law in order for us to protect collectively our sovereignty and unalienable rights.

Likewise, do you wonder why many land holdings of poor people now-a-days have become housing developments by large corporations owned by a certain senator? Senators also are supposed to prevent illegal logging when you reside in the hinterlands to keep you safe from landslides during rainy seasons, do they?. Senators are supposed to protect you, but they don’t because justice is always in their side and against your interest.

If we, the common and ordinary citizens, fail to adopt a Jury Systems Law, we will continue to live in bondage in the hands of corrupt and filthy rich public officials in every aspects of our lives.

In addition to our individual unalienable rights, under our democratic society, we likewise have the right to exercise our rights by “majority rule.” The “Rule of Majority” is vested in us in the private sector because we compose the greatest number of people in our society. While we compose the greater majority, we are unfortunately also composed of the poor and the poorest class of citizens. The purpose of vesting the majority rule in us in the private sector is to prevent the more fortunate minority, who are the rich and the powerful of society, from using their wealth and power to over rule our rights to life, liberty, right of abode, and the pursuit of happiness that are guaranteed to us in our constitution.

It has also been ordained in the constitution that we must have a republican state. This term “republican” has nothing to do with the popular, or sometimes less popular, “republican party” of politicians in the U.S. Neither does it refer to the dreaded “republican guard” in Iraq during the dictatorship of the late Saddam Hussein.

The word “republican” in the Philippine constitution refers to the minority of the Filipino people, called public officials, who “occupy” the “community” of power in the government. We officially refer to their "community" collectively as the “Republic of the Philippines.” But as you have been observing, this “republic” has only been made to operate in favor of government officials and wealthy people. Why? Because, again, we do not have a jury system of justice. Philippine justice has always been under the exclusive “ownership” and control of those powerful public officials as I have been stating time and time again.

A “Republican system of government” is what we have been hearing about “Representative Democracy”, or Democracy by representation. It is the opposite of what we have learned about “Direct Democracy”. In a direct democracy, there is no such thing as congress. The entire population of the people is the congress itself and you can imagine how cumbersome this can be. Direct democracy is characterized by the common adage which says: “One for all and all for one”. An example is when a national budget is to be enacted, wherein all the people of the country will have to come to the poles to vote to approve the budget.

The nature of the Philippine government as being “Republican” is very important for us, specially to the poor. It paves the way of “organizing” our government into a representative democracy. Instead of all of us acting in totality to keep our democracy functioning, we need to choose and entrust to some of our fellow citizens to do the chores of administering the government to keep it going in our behalf. This is made possible by declaring that the Philippines is a “Republican State” in the constitution.
By the republican system of government, it implies that we must elect and vote for some of our fellow citizens to serve in the government each time elections come around.

By this republican system of government, it further implies that we have the right, not only to vote to elect our public officials, but also the right to vote to oust when they breach and betray our trust whenever they commit abuses and acts of corruption. This is where we need the adoption of the Jury System as our means to VOTE OUT corrupt officials by means of our JURY BALLOTS. In voting to oust a corrupt official or in sending him to jail as a crime suspect, it requires two SEPARATE Jury groups with different members to vote to remove from office a bad official.

The first separate process is by secret investigation and indictment by a group of private or ordinary citizens like you and me. If in the investigation, probable cause is found that the public official has committed abuse or corruption in office or a crime suspect has committed a criminal offense, such as depriving you illegally of your land holdings, the said group of people then shall file an accusation in court against the said official. This group composed of 23 private citizens is known as the “Grand Jury” whose main job is to investigate and indict said official in court. Its accusation is called an “indictment” which must be approved by at least 14 votes of its membership by secret ballot.

The second separate process is a follow up of the first process. After the indictment in court, the accused shall then be required to stand trial before another jury, known as the "Trial" Jury composed of 12 citizens.

The trial jury will be presided by a judge who acts like a referee during the presentation of the evidence. The judge shall enforce discipline through his instructions. He also determines whether an evidence is admissible or not during the trial. Along the way, the judge will issue his jury instruction to guide the jurors how to do their job but the judge does not participate with the jury to decide the case. Only the 12 jurors will privately discuss the case and vote secretly to reach their decision on a majority vote, called the "Verdict." Unanimity is not required.

The Grand Jury or the Trial Jury is organized and formed under the supervision of judges and not by politicians. It is through the judges that people obtain protection and knowledge on how to serve as jurors. In this proposed Jury Systems Law, people who serve in juries will be paid with the prevailing legal minimum wage for their services and they (or their next of kin) will be entitled to an indemnity benefit in the event of serious injury or death arising out of, or in the course of, jury service.

NOTE: If you are a resident-citizen in any one of the cities below, this author has prepared for you a draft jury law for your adoption in your city. You can copy it and email the author, Atty. Marlowe Camello, at mcamello@verizon.net, if you need some more help . Simply follow the recommended step-by-step procedures in that web site:

Please "copy/paste" the corresponding web site to start the process of installing your city jury systems law.

Our votes by the jury systems are constitutionally made possible in the Philippines because we have the Republican system of government according to our constitution, In declaring the Philippines as a republican state, it is not necessary to write in the constitution the use of the jury systems because the jury system is already an essential attribute, or natural part, of a republican system of government wherein we have the right to vote to elect, to vote to accuse and to vote to convict a criminally abusive public official or public servant. You may read a historical account about these jury votes system by browsing this LINK.

Another reason for the adoption of the Jury System is to vitalize the Judicial Branch of the Philippines and bring it up to its true equality with its counter-parts, the Legislative and Executive branches of the government. The judiciary today does not enjoy a direct voting support from the common people for lack of the jury systems. This explains why the Judicial Branch is the weakest in authority among the 3 government branches wherein powerful public officials can simply trample upon the precious freedoms and rights of ordinary common citizens.

Currently, justices, judges and prosecutors cannot freely exercise their decisions in fulfilling their functions to protect the cherished rights of the people because they are, in actual practice, totally controlled by powerful officials of the Republic from the President who appoints them in office and Lawmakers in the national government level down through all the local government units from whom justices, judges, and prosecutors owe their positions in office. They are almost nothing but errand boys and girls of their recommending or appointing politicians. Unfortunately, a symptomatic syndrome of this kind is now showing up in the administration of President Aquino where he does not want to investigate certain members of his cabinet that were implicated by Archbishop Cruz of being suspected of protecting the illegal jueteng gambling operators.

As a result, our Philippine Justice (sometimes described as that proverbial blind folded “Lady Justice”) has become the loyal “mistress” for the politicians and powerful officials of the Republic. It is no wonder why the Philippine Government is basically corrupt, inutile, unreliable and not worthy of support by many members of its armed services. Those in the military who publicly declared in a parade their complaints against corruption were instead sent to jail.

How can the jury system vitalize the Judicial Branch and the justice system? Easy and securely. Firstly, by gaining the direct voting support of the people for its acts in administering justice system through the jury systems. Secondly, The common people as members of the juries will not be deterred to decide in justice against any powerful corrupt officials because their livelihood or jobs with private employers cannot be sabotaged by any powerful corrupt government officials. Thirdly, justices, judges, and prosecutors, shall then be shielded by the people through the juries against the unlawful interference from the powerful members of the other branches and instrumentality of the government. Politicians can no longer use said justice officials as their errand boys and girls.

With the jury systems in place, powerful public officials will be prevented from imposing their whims in securing judicial decisions in their favor. Any public official or person who tries to contact a juror or even the judge shall be liable for indictment for obstruction of justice by the grand jury.

A Device for Crime Prevention,
To Achieve National Unity

The Jury System shall operate by instruction to the people who will serve as jurors. The instruction consists of the Grand Jury Instruction and the Trial Jury Instruction. In both forms of instruction, they shall be issued under the tutelage of the presiding judge. These instructions will be uniform in their application throughout the country. This will logically result in the reduction of crimes and naturally pave the way to national unity.

There is no better authority who can give lawful and proper instruction in law to the people than judges who are in the best position and training to teach the law. The Jury System shall become the “school of law” under the supervision by lawful authorities, the judges all over the land, 5 days a week, and 52 weeks a year. This is tantamount to mass legal education of the people about their civic responsibilities. By training the people with good citizenship rules coupled with their power to decide in justice, the logical result will be a great reduction in the extent of lawlessness and government corruption in the Philippines.

Without the jury systems, where else shall the people get their education for "good" citizenship and loyalty to their government? Well, of course, from outlaws such as criminal gang leaders, death squad masterminds, or rebel leaders who teach people how to kill people; how to ambush peacekeepers; how to rob, how to murder and how to massacre people; how to fight petty wars between and against opposing tribes due to their rivalry in courtship, business, and in politics.

In the proposed jury systems law, continuous trial with no more than 3 days of postponement, except in life threatening situation, will be mandatory making any lawyer or presiding judge or any party liable for the crime of obstruction of justice upon indictment by the grand jury for the violation of this rule. Administration of justice will speed up that will significantly reduce criminality in the community. With less incidence of crimes, it will promote peace and encourage unity among the Filipino people.

With juries, the Filipino people will be recruited randomly or by lottery and that will mean that jurors will be chosen to sit in juries regardless of their color, religion, wealth, poverty, gender, or ethnicity and not upon the dictates or instruction of politicians. As they sit in juries, they decide justice peacefully in their halls of justice without hand guns or hand grenades.

The mode of choosing jurors by lottery to serve in juries is one of those factors that shall unite the Filipino people. In southern Mindanao, for example, it will become a common sight to see Muslims, a Christians, Galis, Tirurays, Tasadays, Manobos and Tausugs sitting side by side and face to face in discussing together and deciding together to reach their verdict in a case. This has never happened in the entire history of the Filipino people but it can happen soon once we shall have adopted the jury systems.

Being guided by the same lawful rules and laws nationally via the same Jury System and Instructions, there is no other logical way for Philippine society to go but towards national unity with justice, national reconciliation, and national peace and prosperity.
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